Stocks Slide as U.S. Economy Stagnates

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks fell Friday after a government report showed the U.S. economy produced fewer than 100,000 jobs for the third month in a row. Still, the economy may not be weak enough to warrant another round of support from the central bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 124.20 points, or 0.96%, to 12,772, and closed down 0.84% for the week. The S&P 500 slipped 12.90 points, or 0.94%, to 1,355, erasing its gains to close down 0.55% for the week.

The Nasdaq slid 38.79 points, or 1.3%, to 2,937, and was flat for the week.

The weakness in stocks was led by the technology, capital goods, basic materials and energy sectors, with all 10 S&P 500 large-cap sectors falling.

On the Dow, 25 of 30 blue-chip components lost ground, driven by Alcoa(AA) , Caterpillar(CAT) , Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and IBM(IBM) . McDonald's(MCD) was up a bit more than a quarter of a percent and AT&T(T) was trading sideways.

Losers outpaced winners by 2.1-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 2.5-to-1 on the Nasdaq. Volume was light, with about 2.64 billion shares changing hands on the NYSE and 1.41 billion on the Nasdaq.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 80,000 new workers to their payrolls in June, below the consensus estimate of 90,000 jobs, according to a poll of economists by Reuters. It was the third straight month of sub-100,000 jobs growth, and the worst quarter for job growth in about two years.

The whisper number among traders was closer to 125,000. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2%. Nonfarm payroll employment for April was downwardly revised to 68,000 from 77,000 and the figure was upwardly revised in May to 77,000 from 69,000.